Tag Archives: puzzles

We’re putting “Rubik’s Cube” in quotation marks because we find it funny that due to trademark issues, this particular puzzle is actually called the IQ Brick. Yes, the name Rubik’s Cube has somewhat become genericized and has come to refer to any similar puzzle, so yeah, we guess this is the (wink wink) IQ Brick, a 13X13X13 puzzle that should take the average human a few years to solve. The number of possible combinations is so large, we can’t calculate it, let alone display it in any meaningful way. It’s just mind boggling. But one thing’s for sure, if solving puzzles calms you down, you’ll be as smooth as a sloth for the rest of your life. That’s after you pay the $320 asking price, that is.

Depending on how spoiled your child is, this will either be appreciated and used as a fun teaching toy, as it’s intended, or just be thrown right back in your face for not being “the real thing”. We’re hoping your three year old doesn’t fall in the latter category. The Tinker Tablet is a wooden tablet, made to look like an iPad or something, but with no electronic components. Instead, there’s a wooden puzzle inside that looks like a circuit board, and whose pieces represent different components of a mobile device. What’s interesting is that these pieces can be assembled into a “cellphone”, teaching your tot from a very early age that objects like mobile phones aren’t magical pieces of plastic, but are instead a collection of separate parts that work together to form a functioning device.

When not assembled into a cellphone, the pieces fit into the tablet base, and a dry erase board slides over them to not only secure them in place, but allow the kid to draw… kind of like what people do with actual tablets. It could be a fun, interactive teaching tool that will get the little one’s tech appetite sharpened from a very early age. Currently on Kickstarter, the Tinker Tablet can be yours with a $50 pledge.

We’ve covered Rubik’s Cubes pretty extensively over the years. You might not know this, but they come in innumerable flavours, from 3X3X9 mindbenders to touchscreen based versions. You can add to that list the above “2 in 1 Conjoined 3x3x3 Rubik’s Magic Cube.” The goal of this puzzle is clearly still the same so there really isn’t much else to explain. Folks who like the challenge of a freshly minted puzzle, know that this particular toy/challenge will set you back a very modest $14.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.